Downtown Las Vegas Casino Enters Receivership after $90M Default

• The Downtown Grand has been operated by a court-appointed receiver since January, after it defaulted on a $90 million bank loan
• Despite interest from buyers in 2024 and 2025, no sale was secured
• Nevada law permits the casino hotel to be sold free and clear of its debts
  

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A court-appointed receiver has been operating the Downtown Grand in Las Vegas since Jan. 5, after its owners defaulted on a $90 million construction loan.

According to Clark County District Court records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, lender Banc of California (formerly Pacific Western Bank) sued the ownership entities on Dec. 23, 2025, after they stopped making interest payments in March 2025 and failed to pay off the loan when it matured in August.

The receiver, Paul Hugens of Province LLC, is aggressively pursuing a sale of the downtown casino hotel. In February, his team circulated marketing materials to 162 prospective buyers, according to the R-J, resulting in 25 signed NDAs and 17 former meetings with interested groups.

To sweeten the deal Huygens is utilizing Nevada’s Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act. This law allows a judge to approve a sale that is free and clear of old debts — effectively hitting a reset button so a new owner can take over without inheriting a previous owner’s unpaid bills.

Broken Deals & Promises

The receivership follows a string of failed exits for the owner, L.A.-based CIM Group, which spent roughly $100 million to buy and gut the Lady Luck in July 2007, plus another $100 million on a 2013 renovation and, finally, the $90 million 2020 Gallery Tower expansion.

In early 2025, Penske Media Corp. (publisher of Rolling Stone magazine) entered advanced talks to buy and rebrand the property as a Rolling Stone Hotel & Casino. But that deal imploded during due diligence. This mirrored a previous failed attempt by the Corvus Collective in 2024.

By July 2025, Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas broke the news that the Downtown Grand had stopped paying several of its vendors.

Its debt stems from a $90 million financing package used to build its third hotel tower in 2019. The eight-story, 495-room expansion opened in September 2020, bringing the resort’s total inventory to 1,124 rooms. Ironically, the Gallery Tower was initially heralded as a sign of revitalization, as it was downtown’s first ground-up hotel tower built in over a decade.

What Comes Next

The Downtown Grand continues to operate with its existing staff and vendors under receivership. While how long that will continue is unclear, court filings make one thing certain: the property is no longer in the hands of its owners, and its future now depends on finding a new buyer in the market for a distressed asset within a competitive landscape.